Health Care Odds And Ends

1. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, still sounding a bit like the head of the DCCC, says Republican leadership “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”

2. White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs counters by saying the President still wants a bipartisan bill. “Our goal is to get this done in a bipartisan way,” he says this morning, after Emanuel’s comments were published. “There are several more weeks to go in potential negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. I don’t know why we would short circuit any of that now.”

3. Barney Frank answers the stupid Nazi charge. (Please, make it the last time, LaRouche. Set the children free.)

5. Brian Beutler, at TalkingPointsMemo, gets a nice scoop: A look inside UnitedHealth’s effort to organize its employees–via toll-free “advocacy specialists”–to write letters, attend town halls and otherwise agitate for the company line.

6. RNC Chair Michael Steele discovers the marvel of relativism when asked if “death panels” exist. “Some characterize [the use of the Death Panel phrase] as unfortunate. Others characterize it as a reflection of what they think and what they feel.”